“Big Love:” A very appropriate piece by Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card writes in National Review about this weekend’s much-ballyhooed “Big Love” episode. Much of what he says might as well have been an Article VI Blog post. For example:
[W]hile we [Mormons] don’t like what Big Love is doing, we’re not doing much about it. We’ve learned by observation that protests and boycotts merely increase the publicity, and therefore the viewership, of such hostile productions as the Big Love temple episode.
So the church’s official advice to its members is: Ignore it. (See this, for more.)
. . .
Most Mormons are seeing the Big Love temple episode in the context of the recent outpouring of hatred and bile from those who most vehemently opposed Proposition 8.
Mormons have been targeted for business boycotts; some have lost their jobs because they contributed to the campaign to defend marriage.
The result is that few of us have any desire to act as the worst of our opponents have acted. After someone has boycotted a friend’s business, it makes it a bit harder for you to want to call for a boycott.
By and large, while we’d prefer that everybody handle differences of opinion peacefully, we’d rather be persecuted than be the persecutors. The few times in our history when we have departed from that principle, the results have shamed us for generations. Tolerance works better.
I agree with Card, by and large, but I think the difficulty lies in knowing when to speak out, and how loudly, in response to attacks. In politics, for example, a candidate cannot often turn the other cheek when religiously-based whisper campaigns are under way.
As far as the HBO show goes, my guess is that this latest kerfluffle will pass without much impact on anyone or anything.
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